Christmas is a global holiday that is celebrated each year, and is often surrounded around gift-giving and spending money. But every year society seems to drift further from the true meaning of Christmas, which is prayer and preparing our hearts for the great gift which is Jesus Christ himself.
One of the main reasons for Christmas becoming so secular is the commercialization of the holiday. As theology teacher, Ms. Jefferies explained, “Christmas has become about buying and spending, instead of giving.”
Ms. Jeffries said, “We need to spend more time in Advent waiting and preparing for Jesus to come, not just shopping.” It is no secret that mass consumerism is one of the reasons for the separation of holiday and meaning, but there are ways to prevent that. “Families (and friends) can make a conscious effort to buy less and give more of our time and make time to worship and say thank you for the great gifts of Jesus.”
There are solutions on trying to focus back on the true meaning of Christmas and understand why we celebrate Christmas, the first place to start is in the Churches. “We need more midnight masses where we can celebrate and sing joyful songs together. We need to decide what is important and make that the priority in our families and churches. Go to mass!” said Ms. Jefferies. Being able to really focus on the true meaning of Christmas and spending money and gift giving will help focus Christmas back on God.
When celebrating Christmas, we often focus on giving the best gifts and spending money on others, but we often overlook the greatest gift of all that is free. “The greatest gift being given is our salvation through Jesus Christ and we celebrate his incarnation on it, but the secular world has just taken and run wildly with this idea of materialism and the buying and selling of goods,” Mr. Sinclair.
Christians can still celebrate Christmas with its true meaning, even with the external secularization of the season. Theology teacher, Mr. Manfredi explained, “I think Christmas is only secularized if we let it be. If we choose not to remember the real reason for celebrating Christmas, the birth of Christ, then our Christmas will be more secular.”
Though it may seem that the season is becoming separated from its origin, most Christmas traditions seem to come back to the reason for the season. As Mr. Manfredi said, “Most of those secular elements have their basis in Christian traditions so going back to the roots of some of these traditions that have become secularized will reestablish their real significance.”
To reorient the focus of Christmas back to God, Christians can do a few things. Mr. Manfredi explained that from the start of Advent until Christmas Eve, celebrate Advent, and from Christmas eve until the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6), celebrate Christmas. During Advent, it is important to, “prepare your heart and home, go to mass, buy tots and food for people who won’t have any on Christmas,” Mr. Manfredi said.
No matter how someone chooses to celebrate, it is important for believers to remember, “the central meaning of Christmas is that God is with us, that he came to save us by becoming one of us.” Mr. Manfredi said, “That is a message of hope that can never be overshadowed.”
